We have all heard the quote, "If you find a job you love, you'll never have to work another day in your life." Unfortunately, I talk to friends and relatives all the time whose main topic of conversation is their dissatisfaction with their jobs, and the negative impact it has on every other area of their lives. The downward spiral of being miserable in your day to day role will affect you emotionally, physically, even spiritually. I personally have been in positions in my past that drained the "life" out of me every day. It is no way to live!! What can make a position so miserable? I believe one of the main culprits is working outside of your natural skills, talents or abilities. Trying to fit a square into a circle never works and will lead to dissatisfaction, frustration and an inability to feel inspired.
We spend the majority of our adult lives at our place of employment. We judge and are judged by "what we do", and "how successful we are at our job". I think that our satisfaction with our job has a direct correlation with how WELL we perform in it. So if we all want to find a job that we enjoy, it is my belief that we need to find a position that allows us to use our most natural instincts, talents, and abilities to be successful and happy in our chosen vocation.
So HOW do we find the job and career that makes best use of those skills and abilities? There are many opinions as to what is the best way to go about this. I certainly am not an expert, and I know that there are many methods for identifying which jobs are best suited for different personality types. I decided that the first step was to take a personal inventory of myself. With some direction provided by people I know and respect for their own positions and accomplishments, I took this personal inventory. There were three main parts to this personal inventory; 1) asking questions of myself, 2) Asking questions of others, and 3) Taking objective personality profiles.
- A. Some of the questions I asked myself are: What do I enjoy? What do I NOT enjoy? What have I liked and disliked about my past positions. What is success for me? What are my strengths?
- B. Some questions I asked of others whom I trust for honest feedback are: What words would you use to describe me? What do you see as my strengths AND weaknesses? In what role do you see me as being most successful?
- C. There are lots of tools and methods that help identify the most suitable position for an individual. I chose to take several personality profiles.
What I found from taking an objective look at my answers to questions, listening to recommendations from others, and evaluating results from the tests I took, is that my natural personality, skills, and abilities were very suited for an outside sales position. I found that my personality type is one that is naturally prone to influence others. This is incredibly valuable in a sales role. Finally, I heard time and time again how people see me as outgoing and most likely to find success in a role that deals directly with people and is challenged in a competitive type environment. Now, I did not go so far as to identify what industry to focus on. Finding Unified360 was just great luckJ.
I cannot say that every day produces joy and success. Life as an outside sales person is filled with ups and downs. The two things I appreciate most about my position as a sales person with Unified360 are that I get to meet new people every day and I get to utilize my most natural instincts. To be successful I have to continue to learn and improve in many areas, but it is nice to know that I get to be myself and that I have a good foundation on which to build. This allows me to see my job less as WORK, and more as FUN.
If you find yourself dreading Monday morning and praying for Friday by noon I challenge you to ask yourself if you are working in a role that suits you... a position that showcases the things that make YOU, you! Those personality traits, talents and abilities that, when used, bring fulfillment and an overall sense of purpose. Life is too important and too short to continue simply making it through each day. Leave your mark, make a difference, and excel at what you do by finding a position that allows you to!
Kim Andrade, Business Consultant
Unified360
It seems all we hear about these days is recession, recession, recession... A recent realization made me stop and wonder; what recession? I was driving to the office yesterday and the Dallas North Tollway was open road. On Sunday, I stopped at my local grocery store and there were no lines at the checkout stand. I played golf on one of the most beautiful Saturdays we have had in a long time and there was no one on the course. I couldn't figure out the connection but then it hit me...it's SPRING BREAK!!!!
This is the worst economic time our country has seen since the Great Depression, and everyone is out of town on vacation. Some of you might think "what's there to complain about?" It seems I should be grateful that people are finding the funds to spend a little time on themselves and I get a week-long break from traffic on the freeway. I don't even have to wait in line to do my favorite things! You would be correct if I was just a traditional office worker but I have chosen a career in SALES. Of course, the only notion that runs through my mind today is: "are all of my prospects on vacation this week as well?" For a sales professional like me, this is a very scary thought.
Spring Break is a hard "holiday" to let go of. There is a reason you always had one growing up... It's about this time of the year where the change of seasons feeds our need to take a break and recharge our batteries. Once you get out into the real world, you realize that vacation time is a valuable commodity and should be spent wisely. If this is the time of year you choose to spend some of those days, more power to you! It's one of the few times a year a whole family may have to spend together. I do not doubt the need for Spring Break; I'm just wondering what the effects of having everyone out of town at the same time might have on our businesses.
At the end of the day, is Spring Break good for business or not? Sure it is great for the travel economy but what does it mean for other industries? On one hand, employees get a break to relax, recharge and come back working better than before. On the other hand, business can slow down drastically when there's no one around to keep the "machine" running. Is this something companies should plan for at the beginning of the year? Maybe. No one wants a slow month but it sure does take the heat off when you've planned for the time it comes.
What effect is it having on your business this year? Have you even noticed a difference? If you are a parent, did you take off for your children's Spring Break?
I hope I don't contradict myself when I tell you, I have! Yes, I get to spend a relaxing couple of days with my family for Spring Break. Looks like I will be squeezing 12 days of selling into the 7 days that will be left in the month.
David Kelly, Sr. Client Partner
Unified360
Typically in most organizations, telecom expenses fly under the radar though they often ranks in upper section of monthly corporate expenses. Use Telecom management fell to a telecom manager within the company but it has made a drastic swing into the IT department
"We let IT be IT." This is a relatively new term to describe our audit processes as administrative grunt work augmenting IT's normal tasks, which is generally related to managing the corporate IT infrastructure.
The main reason for this is that accounts payable must rely on the IT and/or telecom departments to tell them if those expenses are valid. Accounts Payable clerks generally do not understand the ins and outs of telecom bills. As we all know, if the invoices are similar in total dollar amounts to the prior month, they are just simply passed through the finance process for payment, with no further thought given to their validity.
IT's main role in corporate life is to keep everything running smoothly and plan for upcoming/impending applications and events. If they fail to keep their servers and applications functional 24/7, it recieves immediate attention that no one wants. If they fail to investigate a billing matter, it's possible that no one would know about it... but more importantly, IT is even less likely to understand the bill than an Accounts Payable clerk with a finance background. Administrative paperwork is not something IT professionals like to do and with telecom expenses it's a dramatic, time-consuming task. The amount of paper, items, cryptic descriptions, hidden charges and the multitudes of carrier contact necessary to resolve any billing matter is a lot for anyone to handle.
So what should you do? Invest in a company that will uncover this deluge and attempt to make sense of it so that by the time they're done, your business can go from having administrative paperwork grunt workers to decision makers, which is guaranteed to improve the organization's bottom line and all around efficiency.
Jeff Rothell, COO
Unified360
Actually, I drive an 09' Toyota which makes the recent problems the company is experiencing hit a little closer to home. Since news first broke early last week about a faulty design causing accelerators to stick, things keep getting worse for Toyota. A global recall on more than 8 million cars, reports of brake problems with the popular Prius Hybrid, and harsh criticism of the company's CEO, Akio Toyoda, over his lack of public appearances during the crisis. What can we take away from Toyota's public relations nightmare? Solid risk management can save companies a lot of headache in the long run.
According to supply risk specialists, there are three distinct kinds of supply risks every company should be aware of: brand, commodity and disruption. Toyota is most certainly dealing heavily with two out of three... expensive disruptions in its supply chain and a huge hit to the brand. In the past, Toyota has consistently ranked among the most respected global corporations with historically high resale values by building dependable cars. Even though there are just a few models being recalled, the bad reputation that comes from a bombshell like this would permeate the entire line.
For customers like me, the recall crisis could heavily affect the expected resale value for our cars. KBB (Kelly Blue Book) and ALG (Automotive Lease Guide) agree that Toyota could see a 4% to 5% additional decrease in value on the vehicles it currently has out on the streets.
"As leases come due and used Toyotas are returned to the manufacturer, the inability of dealerships to either sell or remarket these vehicles could add to an increase in overall supply of used Toyotas," KBB writes.
The questions is, if a crisis like this one can hit the world's most respected auto manufacturer, then we all have reason to be a little more on our toes. It should force all business owners and companies with a reputation at stake to take a closer look at supply risk management and tighten the screws a bit. One thing we can tell for certain from all this is that prevention heavily outweighs the cost of correction.
No matter what, we'll have to keep watching to see how Toyota pulls out of this episode. It will no doubt prove to be long-term, influential, and very expensive.
Tara Young, Marketing Coordinator
Unified360